WELCOME TO THE Kiwanis MIRACLE LEAGUE AT PRINCIPAL PARK
529 SW 5th, downtown Des Moines (just west of Principal Park)
2010
While the weather outside is frightful, and we're getting tired of the snow, ice, and cold, we're all looking forward to our Spring 2010 Kiwanis Miracle League season. It's time to get registered! Registration forms are available here on our web site. Or plan to attend one or all of our Player Registration/Clinics. These will be held on Saturdays with TWO remaining--March 20 and April 10--9:30 a.m. - 11:00 a.m., at Westminster Presbyterian Church, Beaver & Franklin Avenues, Des Moines. We'll bat a little, practice throwing, and even play a couple innings of baseball. What fun! Westminster is fully accessible--parking is best on the west side of the building. And on March 20, we have special "buddies"--members of the Des Moines Buccaneers will join us! See you soon!
At our February 20th Players Clinic, our players wrote
letters to the Iowa Cubs...asking them to attend
one of our next clinics, or one of our games at
the Kiwanis Miracle League site.
Here's Miranda writing her letter.
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OUR 2009 SEASON
Our Fall Season is over! Over 145 players played. And nearly 400 volunteers made it all happen by serving as buddies, working in the concession stand, participating in "work days" at the site, and serving on committees.What a great time we've all had.
Our end-of-the-season players' party, complete with trophies, was Sunday, October 18, at The Orange Planet. Thanks to one of our great supporters, David Charleston, for allowing us to use TOP facilities. What a beautiful place.
We had nearly 500 players, families, and volunteers! All enjoyed pizza, trophies, and fun! There was even a surprise telephone call from Santa Claus, complete with a special drawing for a motorized scooter. A great time was had by all!
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Our last games of the 2009 Fall Season turned out to be October 4 as Mother Nature decided to bring in questionable weather for games on October 6 and 11. Coaches and players said this was the best season ever, especially getting to "play under the lights" on September 29. Dalton, a member of the Cubs team, had our first out of the park home run. (We had 3 more home runs in the rest of the season.) Delaney (Mets) delighted us all with her singing of Take Me Out to the Ball Game between innings. Evan (Yankees) is still incredulous that all his games ended in a tie! All say they are looking forward to next year at the Kiwanis Miracle League park!
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Check HERE for seasonal updates or call 515.280.5017.
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Our last games of the Spring Season were Saturday, July 11. The weather was wonderful, spectators and buddies plentiful, and all the players on every team enjoyed our last day of Miracle League play in our Spring Season. Special thanks to our friends at Dairy Queen for supplying concession volunteers and Dilly bars for our players.
The Iowa Barnstormers were our "angels in the outfield" on July 6. Hope you caught the great coverage on WHO-TV/Channel 13 news!
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SPRING 2009
Over 100 kids played ball on our Opening Day on May 30--and what a fun event!
Click on the video below and watch how miracles happened...
2008
Nearly 400 joined us for special ceremonies and nearly 60 kids played their first game on our new field. Miracles happened with smiles all around. Several hundred people joined with us in celebrating the building of Iowa's first Miracle League Field in downtown Des Moines. Our goal is to make the game of baseball within reach of EVERY child, regardless of their abilities. Partnering with the Iowa Cubs and the Greater Des Moines Leadership Class of 2007-08, we've created a "field of dreams" across from Principal Park, where the Iowa Cubs play. Thanks to a significant gift of $100,000, kids will be playing on the Community Foundation of Greater Des Moines Field. And thanks to a significant gift of $111,000 from the Richard O. Jacobson Foundation, we will be building our "phase 2" covered pavillion, hopefully ready for our 2010 spring season.
Our mission is to offer accessible recreational opportunities for children with special needs so that they can participate in a team sport as a member of an organized baseball league. Not only have we provided an opportunity for kids with special needs to play baseball, but we have also engaged the central Iowa community in our efforts, through financial commitments to the construction of the special facility AND unique volunteer opportunities through our "buddy" system. We cannot change or cure the medical issues life has dealt our children with disabilities. What we can do is provide them with an opportunity to experience the joy and benefits that come from playing our national pastime — baseball! We truly believe that
every child deserves a chance to play baseball!
Last year, we were far enough into our construction that we were able to hold opening ceremonies on September 28 and kids got to play 5 games in our "exhibition season", THANKS to the many volunteers who served as buddies, grilled hot dogs, prepared the site for games, and did general clean-up. We will have numerous volunteer opportunities going forward. Please check out the volunteer opportunities on our volunteer page or contact our Volunteer Coordinator, Lisa Christie, at MLVolunteers@downtowndesmoineskiwanis.org if you want to be a "buddy" or assistant coach. If you can lend a hand at the site. please email us at miracleleague@downtowndesmoineskiwanis.org. See details at "VOLUNTEERS NEEDED NOW>"
We continue to need YOUR support! Please consider making a contribution at whatever level you can. (More information is available on our "donations/contribution" page.) And consider volunteering for our fall season (see our "volunteer" page). You'll be glad you did! And THANK YOU.
Here's progress on our site! We look just like the Iowa Cubs across the street! Our late 2009-early 2010 project is to add a picnic pavilion at the site--to be named the Richard O Jacobson pavilion. Here's how far we got before the "snows of 2009-10" kept us from doing anything more. We're also adding a "memory garden" next to the pavillion.
